Sotheby’s, the publicly traded auction house, said its fourth-quarter profit increased 31 percent as art sales continued to recover with financial markets. The company said net income rose to $96.2 million from $73.6 million a year ago. ARTKABINETT social network for fine art collectors has witnessed the amazing climb in recent prices.
Sotheby’s earned $1.38 a share, more than the average $1.32 estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Quarterly revenue increased 46 percent to $318 million. It was Sotheby’s most profitable quarter in three years.
“The recovery of the global art market, which was aided in part by the increased buying activity of clients from new markets, certainly contributed to these results,” Chief Executive Officer William Ruprecht said in a statement.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 10 percent in the fourth quarter and has nearly doubled in the past two years. Sotheby’s shares doubled in the past year. They rose 96 cents to $49.22 in New York Stock Exchange trading today, before the earnings were released.
History of Sotheby's
Sotheby's predecessor, Baker's, was founded in London on 11 March 1744 when Samuel Baker presided over the disposal of "several hundred scarce and valuable" books from the library of a certain Rt. Hon. Sir John Stanley.
This disposal however was not by means of auction and the business did not seek to auction fine arts in general until much later, their first major success in this field being the sale of a Frans Hals painting for 9 thousand guineas as late as 1913.
The current business dates back to 1804 when two of the partners of the original business (Leigh and Sotheby) left to set up their own book dealership.
The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being Uppsala Auktionskammare founded in 1731, all Swedish.
As well as numerous high profile real life auctions being held at Sotheby's, the auctioneers has also been used in various films, including the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy in which Bond (played by Roger Moore) unsuccessfully tried to bid for a rare Fabergé egg, which he had cleverly exchanged for a fake that was finally sold to the villainous Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan)
